


i like me better when i'm with you

by rosegoldblood



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Study, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Insecurity, Light Angst, My First Work in This Fandom, Other, Out of Character, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, This Is STUPID, no beta we die like men, piper and festus are in it for two seconds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21746575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosegoldblood/pseuds/rosegoldblood
Summary: baby's first fanfiction!i've been putting off writing a fanfiction for ages but i've finally convinced myself that i'm not a pussy. anyway, i tried to leave it kind of ambiguous with the events in toa and stuff.hope you enjoy reading even though my characterisation is absolute shit!
Relationships: Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano/Leo Valdez
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. stage lights and starry nights

**Author's Note:**

> baby's first fanfiction!
> 
> i've been putting off writing a fanfiction for ages but i've finally convinced myself that i'm not a pussy. anyway, i tried to leave it kind of ambiguous with the events in toa and stuff.
> 
> hope you enjoy reading even though my characterisation is absolute shit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am /so proud/ of that rhyme in the title.

a familiar voice calls out to her.

"what do you want, piper?" reyna asks, calmly, taking a sip from her red solo cup filled with something that tastes like poison (she'd know). piper looks offended.

"can't i talk to my -"

"you can, but you never do. out with it." she takes another sip and decides to ditch the whole thing entirely, setting the cup on a nearby table.

piper sighs, running her fingers through her hair. "fine. leo's gone."

reyna shrugs. "and?"

"for the next performance -" piper waves her hand carelessly toward the stage, "- we need him. for the lights and the... engineering stuff. someone might, i dunno, get killed by a metal beam..."

it's clear that piper is a little intoxicated, which reyna chooses to ignore. "unlikely. okay, leo's gone. this concerns me how?"

"find him."

it's hard to argue with someone inebriated - you could even say impossible - and in the end reyna relents. for one thing, it would kind of be her fault if someone died from a fallen beam. second, she wasn't too excited to stay here among the sweaty, cheery bodies for much longer.

so she goes.

she checks the hephaestus cabin, which is empty except for harley, who clanks away at a piece of metal. she doesn't respond when reyna asks her where leo is.

even more surprising is that the bunker that leo's always holing up in is empty, too. festus creaks in the corner, red eyes glowing in the dark, but leo himself is nowhere to be seen.

festus seems to know who reyna's looking for and unfurls, blowing a stream of fire toward the woods. "thank you," reyna says, a little awkwardly, because how was _she_ supposed to know proper automaton dragon etiquette?

ten minutes into wandering idly through the woods and reyna's accepted that leo's either somewhere else or had been mauled by a monster. she was about to turn back and leave when -

"yo, who's it?"

reyna almost wishes she never heard him at all. "piper's looking for you," she responds instead of her name, looking up at a blanket of darkness. "what are you _doing_?"

"do you really need to know?" something flashes and a branch snaps. leo slides down the trunk of the tree, with a grin that doesn't reach his eyes. "i never knew you were so _interested_ in me."

"no," is all reyna says back, because stupid statements aren't worthy of replies. "piper's looking for you," she repeats.

"i've heard."

"so go."

leo leans against the bark and taps his finger against his chin. "this is about the lights, isn't it? i can stay here for a while. i'm thinking."

reyna kind of wants to leave, but no matter how annoying she finds him, it'd be rude to turn tail and leave so she says instead, "is this about calypso? do you miss her?"

it's a surprisingly empathetic question, which makes leo raise his eyebrows. "aww. do you care about me? i knew you had a soft squishy heart somewhere in there." he gestures toward her chest before realising how awkward that is. to be fair, his changing of the subject is rather smooth. "no, i'm not thinking about her. not much."

he doesn't explain further.

"i'm leaving," reyna says, turning on her heel.

"just when i was starting to appreciate some company, as well - no, i don't mean it like that. chill, _amiga_." 

reyna detects a hint of genuine truth in his voice; and so she stays, not quite knowing what to say. leo smiles and slumps against a tree.

"i knew you cared about me," he says, although it didn't have any of the familiar feeling that made him so insufferable. "i guess i was thinking about caly. but mostly... not her in particular, you know, but what it felt like."

"what it felt like?" reyna parrots, mostly because leo looks so earnest and the smile on his face looks so broken and how is she going to be mean when he looks like this?

"to be wanted. to be loved."

the words seemed to resonate within reyna, shaking somewhere in her mind like a string. she remembered what it was like back on circe's island: sure, it was dangerous, but she had hylla.

and again, on the quest to get the athena statue to camp half-blood. death at every turn, sure, but nico was there and she prided herself on making him open up when no one else could.

leo laughs, stretching. "eh. i'm just being overdramatic. it's fine."

"you're lying."

this seems to startle the smile off his face. "you're lying," reyna elaborates, "it's not fine. you're not fine."

silence.

"the talent show. the whole performance... thingy." leo laughs at himself. "it makes me feel like i'm worthless. i mean, aren't i? i can barely fight."

"you're plenty useful," reyna states, "and you're average with a sword. you don't have to keep acting like you're shit." she lowers her voice. "piper loves you. piper wants you," reyna says, and her voice is strong but the words feel a little pathetic. like a made-up excuse or fake comfort.

"sure she does," leo muses, the smile back on his face, and it pisses her off, how he feels the need to humour her. "but sometimes... it's just jason, jason, jason. like, i get it. i'm happy for her. really. but sometimes i wanna be someone's first choice."

reyna raises her eyebrows and thinks about the duty she had shouldered off just - what? two months ago? it seemed like barely a week. 

"well, i have none at the moment, so," reyna remarks.

leo looks up at her, gears turning in his head. his eyes widen. "oh my _gods._ babe, are you - what - _offering_ to -"

"no. and if you're going to act like that, goodbye." reyna turns again, disgusted at herself for even offering.

"wait, don't. i'm just confused." he tilts his head, still grinning. "reyna... thanks. wow, no one's said that to me before. i like it. _wow._ okay, say it again. i need to cherish this -"

"piper's probably going insane at this very moment," reyna deadpans.

"oh, shit. piper. guess i should go, then." he jumps up and reaches for reyna, who recoils. "don't think i'm letting you off the hook. i'll get you to say those sweet, sweet words again."

"o - _kay,_ leo."

"did you just call me leo? i -"

"good night."

she didn't stay to watch his reaction. instead she walked into the woods to do some thinking herself, because becoming friends with leo valdez in ten minutes was definitely something worth reflecting on.

**fin.**


	2. i don't want to miss you (but i do)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a short note: believe me when i say there's zero romance in this book. so if you're reading for that, then there's none of it here (try my chatfic instead). that being said i love attention so if you want to keep reading, be my guest :)
> 
> and also, this is /very/ heavy on the spoilers for the tyrant's tomb, so if you don't want to be spoiled then i advise not reading!

"you're crying," a voice said from behind her, "jeez, i never thought i'd see the day."

"i'm not crying -" reyna's fingers swiped against her cheeks, and they came away wet, " - oh. i guess i am. ah, well, it's none of your business, anyway."  
  


leo flopped against the couch with all the grace of a burnt egg and sighed dramatically, hand grasping at his chest like he was having a stroke. "you wound me, rey. i thought we were friends." his expression turned serious (or rather, _more serious than before,_ because could leo really ever be truly serious?) and he straightened. "is this about you leaving tomorrow? i know you'll miss me."

reyna scoffed at the thought. "hmph. no. not everything's about you."

"so _tell_ meeee," he whined like a baby.

if she was being honest, reyna didn't really know why she was crying, either. she had just been thinking about the camp - _her_ camp - or rather, it used to be. she remembered it going to hazel and frank, if they were fitting in well as praetors. and then she was thinking about hylla, her sister, and - oh, that must have been it.

"i suppose i was thinking about my sister."

leo stilled, obviously waiting for something, but when reyna stayed silent he groaned again and sank to the floor. "what are friends for if you won't tell me why you're sad? you're the absolute worst."

"if it makes you feel better, i don't tell _anyone_ why i'm sad." reyna pauses, and it's clear that leo won't let it go because he's nosy and clingy and that's the only reason reyna tells him. the _only_ reason. she wouldn't tell him if he wasn't so infuriating. really, this was all his fault. "i'm not sure. my guess is that i miss her."

it feels a little liberating to say it, because gods, she hasn't seen her sister in _so long,_ and she's pretty sure that's not normal. not for mortals. she wasn't worried, not really; hylla was fine, of course. there was no doubt about it. but she did want to see her again, just for the sake of it. they had been apart for seventy percent of their lives, reyna becoming praetor and hylla joining the amazons, and she hadn't seen her since the war...

which was years ago.

"i haven't seen her since -" reyna realised that maybe mentioning the war to someone who died to win it wasn't best form. "well, i haven't seen her for years. and it's natural to miss someone." natural, but still frustrating. damn pointless emotions that made her cry when she had stuff to do. and hylla was probably busy being queen of the amazons; but still.

"i get it." but because this was leo and he couldn't stop talking: "i mean, uh, kind of. like, the person you're missing is like alive and all and - uh, no, sorry, this isn't about me, shit. no, yeah, i get it, and it's like, obviously this person has stuff to do and you feel a little selfish. am i right?"

reyna raised her eyebrows and let herself laugh for a millisecond. "yes," she admitted, "you're right."

"see? i always am."

"and you're back to being insufferable."

"i don't mean to be. i feel sorry for you." he sighed, his cheek in his hand as he stared at her. "feelings suck. you just gotta hold out hope that one day you'll see them again." there was a wispy smile on his face. "you know?"

reyna opened her mouth to say something (anything) to ask if he still felt that way about everyone he'd loved, but she was interrupted by a knocking at the door and thalia's muffled voice telling her to hurry up. "hm. i have to go now. i'll see you... someday." (reyna didn't want to know how long it would before she came back to camp half-blood again, and she didn't really want to know).

leo poked her cheek, and she batted his hand away. "you'll miss me, won't you?" there was the usual, wide-mouthed grin on his face and he swung his legs back and forth like a child. there was something in it. something in the way it was stretched _too_ wide, the way his eyes were dull and unexpecting of anything. "i'll miss you," he admitted, "i like having you around. you and your judgemental face." his hands clasped together, and his eyes lit up once more. 

"so, it's okay. even if you won't miss me. i'm used to it."

"i will." 

the light vanished again, like a bulb turning on, off, on, off. she'd seen it. in everyone, not just him. in hazel, whenever someone brought up the life before this one. in frank, whenever someone talked about their mother, in the halls and in the court. it was enough to make anyone wonder what the hell was wrong with them. what they did to deserve this.

"you will?" he was still smiling, but it looked a little disbelieving. his eyes darted around her face, scanning, examining, for any sign of pity, sadness, lies. but reyna was nothing if not genuine. she never lied. "man, i knew you would. i mean, look at me!" eyebrows wiggling, he pushed himself off the couch to gesture to his body. then he softened. "thanks, though."

(and although she never lied, reyna would never admit that she did this for years to come: she softened, too.) "you have nothing to thank me for."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one was so short! i just wanted to write one about hylla and reyna.

**Author's Note:**

> i know that the characterisation is a little weird but i can't for the life of me pinpoint what the problem is with these characters, so if you have any idea please hmu. please. expect more from me now that i'm not a pussy anymore!


End file.
